It is true that the poundage and bow length plays a big part in the stress sinew has. I remember never having much problems with sinew backings until i started to make these 42" flightbows at 100# of draw weight. That is when i had my first strands snapping even at first brace.
I’ve been busy with the bows (and other bows). Like i mentioned i had some problems with sinew in few bows again! Never ending struggle it seems. At least i’ve come to conclusion that putting on 1,5mm thick (dry thickness) layers is not worth it. It will end up sloppy work.
One bow developed a crack in the horn and one bow actually broke the grip piece wood at the bow press! So lots of happening.
But no worries i have many bows and poundage wont be a problem.
This one bow i showed earlier has been taken to 24" from belly. It shows the bow has way too long kasans but is holding crazy reflex. So it might be still fast, even though it looks a bit stupid.
This bow must finish somewhere at 105-120#.
This #7 bow is pretty stout. ~130# @26" from belly. I really like it that it has stiiiiff handle, long bending sections and small amount of more length (112cm ntn)
I think this is the way i want my bows to be.
After brace, the reflex is gained pretty fast. Picture is 3 minutes after unbrace.
Mass is 414g.
Sounds like your zeroing in on what you like.
Heh well its about time! But yep, i really like this rigid grip. Leads to less string follow too. That 383fps/205gn bow had also less bend near grip than some of my previous bows.
So do you put more sinew in the fade and grip area to achieve the stiffness?
I do it with grip taper, so just more horn and wood.
I want to have equal amount of sinew in the handle and bending limbs. 4 to 4,5mm layer. So something like 0.16" to 0.18".
I’ve found this makes the bending more predictable. Wood and horn make the shape and sinew just prevents the bow from breaking apart.
What i have heard is that turkish people used very thick sinew in the bow handle. I guess there is many ways to reach the same goal.
This one is 110cm ntn. Now 125# at 24" from belly (25,5" from back). I will make it finish most likely at 130#. Mass 400g.
Lots of strong bows being made right now!
I wonder i can shoot these…
Looking awesome. My shoulders hurt just looking at this picture! I think my days of hoping to shoot a 100 lb bow are history
I agree awesome bow Jere.
Personally I would think that the bottom bow shown drawn would hold more reflex compared to the top bow shown with the longer handle drawn as it seems to look to have more length of working limb.But if any set is taken on inner limbs with lower bow shown that can hurt reflex a lot.
Anyhow it’s still an awesome bow Jere.
Thanks guys. Lots of training goes into it…!!
I should have mentioned that the 142# bow drawn here is a glassbow. Its for practice use only, since its a bit too heavy to control with tiny flight arrows.
These two hornbows that i recently showed are a bit different from each other. Both have longer handle, but the latter (125# @24") has a bit more abrupt kasan angle of sorts. In a big picture they are tiny differences though - both will shoot arrow just fine.
Ed, you mentioned set near the handle. Its a thing i’ve started to pay attention in hornbows too and its one of the reasons i think these stiffer handle bows work better efficiency wise. These seem to keep better reflex. It is not new thing for me when it comes to woodbows and i favour more elliptical tiller with those also.
That’s a beast of a glass bow…ha ha.
This is a subject I’m always very interested in.Maybe it’s been over stated about in the past,but it’s so important.
It used to be that I wanted or the theory was more working limb making self bows for less set with shorter handles overall.Although they were always eliptically shaped yet.Over quite some time now my opinion has changed.Longer handles with shorter working limbs,but not whip tillered yet with reflex produces more efficient and more pleasant bows to shoot.
The real power still needs to come from the inner limbs so adjustments need to be made there.The outer limbs don’t produce as much power with the stress being less there so it can handle the more abrupt reflex.
All this adjustment in design cannot be luckily made IMO.It takes trial and error with a lot of pain and frustration along the way.